Aileen Cannon Is Playing Right Into Defense's Hands: Ex-Trump Lawyer
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, June 22, 2024, at Temple University in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
A former lawyer for Donald Trump said Judge Aileen Cannon is "playing right into the defense's hands" by delaying the former president's classified documents case in Florida.
Michael van der Veen, who defended Trump at his second impeachment trial in 2021, criticized Cannon's handling of the case on Monday while appearing on CNN's Newsnight, saying her actions were favoring the defense.
Van der Veen said Cannon's allowance of too many people to give opinions in court and her slow decision making were "very unusual," and agreed when host Abby Phillip asked if Cannon was "dragging this thing out".
"She certainly seems to be taking a lot longer than is possibly necessary," he answered.
"It's really important when on the bench to give your decisions well-reasoned, but also timely. To continue to give people time to supplement the arguments and supplement evidence, it's not doing the Justice any good. It's really playing right into the defense's hands."
The comments come after arguments from Trump's lawyers last Friday to have the case dismissed on the grounds that Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed.
On Monday, Cannon spent two hours grilling the DOJ about its budget, with attorney for Smith's office James Pearce arguing at one point that there have been no previous cases where "any court has suggested that the total amount of expenditures [of the special counsel's office] is relevant" to the investigation.
The conduct of Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, has become the subject of fierce legal debate, with some constitutional law experts arguing that she is unreasonably delaying the trial and that she should not hear arguments from outside parties, and others claiming she is acting rightly by doing so.
The case against Trump is based on 40 federal charges, alleging that he illegally retained classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 and obstructed the government's efforts to retrieve them. Trump's indictment came after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2022. The former president has pleaded not guilty and has said the case is politically motivated.
In May, Cannon indefinitely postponed the trial pending resolution of the extensive pretrial litigation which remains unresolved, all but ensuring the case will not be heard before the election in November.
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